Calodactylodes aureus

Taxobox | name = Indian golden gecko
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Reptilia
ordo = Squamata
subordo = Sauria
familia = Gekkonidae
genus = "Calodactylodes"
species = "C. aureus"
binomial = "Calodactylodes aureus"
binomial_authority = Beddome, 1870

Indian golden gecko "Calodactylodes aureus" is a species of gecko known only from the Tirumala hills in the Eastern Ghats of India.

Description

Digits slender at the base, free, with squarish scales beneath, with large trapezoidal penultimate and distal expansions, the lower surface of each of which is covered by two large plates separated by a longitudinal groove; all the digits clawed, the claw retractile between the distal plates; in the inner digit the penultimate expansion is absent. Body covered above with small granular scales, intermixed with larger tubercles; abdominal scales juxtaposed. Pupil vertical. No preanal or femoral pores.

Head large, oviform, very distinct from neck; a strong rounded supraorbital and canthal ridge; five deep concavities, via. a frontal, two postnasals, and two loreals; snout longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, 1.3 times the diameter of the orbit; ear-opening vertical, measuring half the diameter of the eye. Body not much depressed. Limbs long, slender. The width of the digital expansion measures about half the diameter of the eye. Head covered with very small granules, largest on the canthal ridges; rostral four-sided, twice as broad as high, its posterior border concave; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals, the anterior large and in contact with its fellow; 12 or 13 upper and as many lower labials; mental as large as the adjacent labials, or smaller than them; no regular chin-shields, but small polygonal scales passing gradually into the granules which cover the gular region. upper surface covered with minute granules; back with scattered, scarcely prominent, smooth, round, larger tubercles, hardly as large as the ventral scales; the latter flat, smooth, squarish, juxtaposed, arranged like the bricks of a wall. Tail long, cylindrical, remarkably slander, covered with squarish scales which are much larger beneath. Brownish white above (golden during life), dotted or vermiculated with brown; lower surfaces whitish. [Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia]

From snout to vent 3.5 inches ; tail 3.2.Habitat: Amongst rocks in dark shady ravines ou the Tirupati Hills.

Type locality: Tirupathi hills.(fide M.A. Smith 1935).

Notes

References

* Bauer,A.M. & Günther,R. 1991 An annotated type catalogue of the geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in the Zoological Museum , Berlin. Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin 67: 279-310
* Bauer, A.M. & I. Das 2000 A review of the gekkonid genus Calodactylodes (Reptilia: Squamata) from India and Sri Lanka. J.South Asian Nat. Hist., Colombo, 5 (1): 25-35
* Beddome,R.H. 1870 Descriptions of some new lizards from the Madras Presidency. Madras Monthly J. Med. Sci. 1: 30-35
* Daniel,J.C. et al. 1986 Rediscovery of the golden gecko "Calodactylodes aureus" (Beddome) in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 83: 15-16

External links

*
* http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Calodactylodes_aureus.jpg
* http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Calodactylodes_aureus2.jpg